Reflections on Guinea Pig Poop

Always wanting to be cool, at least in front of my guinea pigs, I finally decided to give it a try. We blocked off a section of the living room, and left their cage open to the floor for an hour or so. This worked out really well, and as we became braver and braver, we left them out longer and longer. And, one day, after I had made sure the entire section of the room was guinea-pig-proof, I decided to let them spend the whole day with the cage open to the floor. Now that I'm less paranoid about their safety, I have graduated to the state of letting them stay out pretty much all day while I'm at work, and yesterday (for the first time), I let them spend the entire night with the cage open.

Which brings us to the subject of poop.

Our guinea pigs our pretty well potty-trained. That doesn't mean that they use the same corner of the cage all the time, or that they head for the cage when they have to go. What it does mean is that they have learned the difference between "the carpet" and "the litter", and when they are on "the carpet" they don't usually pee or poop, saving this activity for when they are in the cage. But, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so we wanted to be prepared, as no one likes to clean up after "accidents".

Since we'd gotten comfortable with the idea of them running around the floor all the time, we decided to invest in some litter pans (really nice, big, high-backed, triangular "critter corners", distributed by Super Pets). We spread these pans around the room such that, no matter where the pigs happened to be crashed out on the carpet, they were always within a few feet of one. And they love them; each pan is big enough for one large, or two smaller, guinea pigs and they sleep in them, play in them, eat the hay in them and, of course, poop and pee in them.

But not always.

Every day, when we come home from work, we'll find 10 or 15 poops lying around on the floor. Some of them are partially eaten, others whole, and they all come in different sizes, meaning the entire clan has gotten into the act. But, even though it takes a few minutes to pick up, I have to admit that I don't really mind guinea pig poop all that much. Examining their poop, we see that its generally dry, almost always pellet-shaped, not too stinky and generally easy to collect and throw away. Poop is not a problem.

Pee, on the other hand, is another story. Pee requires the stain remover; it's smelly and it soaks into the carpet. But, no matter how much my guinea pigs may poop on the carpet, they rarely ever pee on it. In fact, I haven't had to clean up a pee stain in months. And I keep thinking to myself, why is that?

With this question in mind, I started myself down a path of discovery. My subconcious had actually started churning on this problem many months ago, when we first discovered that our pigs, when sitting in our laps, tend to get "anxious" before they need to pee, whereas poops just seem to appear out of nowhere. One minute, you're holding a soft, cuddly furball, and the next minute, your lap is covered in jellybeans. Why were there no warning signs for poop?

Well, tonight we think we have finally figured it out. Based purely on anecdotal evidence (and the lack of a clear scientific process), we think the fundamental difference between these two toilet activities comes down to that of awareness: guinea pigs are more conscious of peeing than they are of pooping.

Now, let's think about this for a minute: what does it really mean? Well, if you watch your piggies when they are about to pee, usually, they back into a corner, or wiggle their bottom into the hay, or just sit still for a few moments before starting. When they are on your lap, they'll tug at your sleeve, or nibble on your fingers or start getting anxious (possibly even backing into corners). If you foolishly ignore these warning signs, you'll end up with a wet spot and an unpleasant smell.

But poop, on the other hand, just comes out. We've watched our pigs for hours on end, and poop just seems to emerge without them even thinking about it. They drop it while they are walking, sleeping, eating, drinking and standing. And it especially comes out when they are stressed. They don't do any preperation, and they certainly don't stop what they are doing, before they poop. They just do it.

So, I really believe that pooping is something that guinea pigs aren't as concerned about as peeing. After all, poop is also food for them. Why should they care about where they eat? I think that there is some control over pooping, or our carpet would be littered with it, but if it's not convenient for them to hunt down the litter pan to go, then they'll just go where they are standing. And life goes on. Or, maybe they don't even know they have to poop, and it's as much as a surprise to them as it is to us.

I don't know for sure, but I think I'm on to something here. Now, I don't think that this extra tidbit of knowledge is going to save the world or control global warming, but if it's another piece in the puzzle of guinea pigs, and what makes them tick, then I know I'll sleep easier at night.

After I clean up the carpet, of course.